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How Islamic State Weaponized the Chat App to Direct Attacks on the West

Police alarmed by emergence of militants that they say are using chat apps and social media to recruit militants in Europe from abroad

The Wall Street Journal has obtained audio messages, purportedly from an Islamic State operative in Syria or Iraq, that police say were used to recruit people to undertake terror plots in France. The messages allegedly show how Islamic State directs terror plots in Europe from remote positions.

PARIS—A predawn attack on a French policeman’s home, the killing of a priest during Mass and a car bomb planted near Notre Dame Cathedral in recent months were plots that appeared isolated until investigators discovered a common thread.

Their authors had all allegedly been in contact with a man whom authorities identify as 29-year-old Rachid Kassim.